The multi-million dollar brain training games industry would no doubt claim that its mental exercises are based on sound neurological theory and that therefore there is a reasonable possibility of improving your memory and other skills through using its mind exercise software.
Well, recently the very revealing results of a large UK study into the effectiveness of brain exercises on improving memory etc. have been published, and they are probably not what you would have predicted. BBC television conducted this research in conjunction with the British Medical Research Council and the Alzheimer’s Society.
They recruited thirteen thousand adult volunteers to take part in their rigorous experiment over a period of six weeks. The intention was to see whether exercising the brain on a number of tasks designed to use different areas of the brain (such as the temporal lobes for memory and the parietal lobes for mathematics), would improve brain skills, such as memory and problem-solving abilities.
The volunteers were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The first group did a broad range of brain exercises, including ones for improving memory, for ten minutes every other day for six weeks. Since the tasks were internet-based, the control group just used the internet for the same amount of time. At the end of the trial period, the brain training group was retested on the brain exercises and was found to be 33 per cent better at performing the brain games they had trained on.
This sounds great; but were these improved mental skills transferable from the mind exercises with which the group was already familiar, to general core cognitive abilities, like problem-solving and remembering sequences of numbers? Both groups of participants were tested on these skills both before the trial and afterwards. The average score for both groups beforehand was identical.
Upon retesting at the end of the trial, the control group’s score had improved by 4.35 per cent. Surprisingly however, the score for the experimental group was almost identical. It represented only a 6.52 per cent increase over its original score. So, statistically there was no difference between the two groups. Of course, what they could not conclude was whether the small improvement was just the effect of working online. Perhaps there could have been another group that did nothing online.
However, people who enjoy brain exercises should not lose heart. Firstly, speaking from personal experience, if nothing else, they are a lot of fun! Beyond that, even though you should not expect them to help with improving memory, there are certainly a number of other ways of improving your memory and other mental abilities, which have been scientifically-proven. These include diet, reading, taking physical exercise and listening to music.
Amelia Klein has been investigating improving memory for many years and has written articles about it. To learn more about memory strategies, click this link: improving memory.
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